Portable leach-clearing apparatus.



No. 844,693. PATLNTLD PEB. 19, 1907.

` o. SBIDLL, JE.

PORTABLE LBAGH CLEARING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21, 190s.

a SHEETS-SHEET 2,'

10.644,693. PATENTBD FEB. 19, 1907. o. SBIDEL, JA. PORTABLE LEAGH CLEARING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION- FILED MAR.21,1906.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

xxxxxxx n TINTTFD STATES PATENT OFFTCE..

PORTABLE LEACH-CLEARING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 19, 1907.

Application filed March 21,1906. Serial No. 307,298,

.To all w/w'nt it may concern:

Be it known that I, Or'ro SEIDEL, Jin, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of fisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Leach-Clearing Apparatus g and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of iny invention is to provide a portable leacli-clearing device so arranged with reference to power and o' )crating nicchanisin as to be readily nioved 'frein one leachtank to another by suitable systein of overhead tracks and trolleys, frein which said dcvice is suspended.

Said invention consists in certain peculiarities of construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter et forth with reference to the accompanying drawings and subscquently claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a vcrtical section of a leach-tank, showing a leachclearing device in accordance with iny invention suspended therein, thc said device being partly broken away and in section to incre clearly illustrate the details there., f g Fig. 2, a plan view of the saine with portions of the tank broken away; Fig. 8, an enlarged detail section of one end cf the bark-scraper, said section being taken cn line 3 3 of Fig. 1 Fig. 4, an enlarged crc ss-section cf the leachclearing scaffold, the section being indicated by line 4 4 of Fig. 1'; Fig. 5, a similar view upon a plane as indicated by the line 5 5 cf Fig. l, showing the raising and lowering druin and its connection 6, an inverted plan view of the interinittent-driving gear of the drum, and Fig. 7 a detail of one of the end scrapers.

Referring by letter to the drawings, A indicates a leach-tank, and A a portion of an adjacent one B, a inass cf spent bark in tank A, the plug for the registering orifice in thc bottoni of this leach-tank A having been reinoved, thereby leaving an opening in the inass of bark aligned with the orifice C, tlnough which the bark is gradually discharged by the leach-scraper until the tank is entirely cleared. The inner walls of the tanks are provided with diainetrically opposite parallel cleats D, having abrupt inner edges which Aforni channels E, adapted to re ceive shoe extensions F cf the leach-clearing fraine or scaffold G, the faces of said cleats being inclined so that the outer edges thereof present an unbroken surface at their junction with the tank-walls. The sca'Hold G of the device is suspended by inea-ns of cables II II, secured to said sca'll'cld at its ends by branches a (1,. These cables are then passed up and over pulleys I of a carrier or trolley J and from thence drawn through openings in the aforesaid scall'old to pulleys i) b', secured to the under side thereof. Frein these pulleys the cables are given right-angle turns and are brought together, at which junction they pass under other guide-pulleys c c, up through openings in the sca'Hold, and over a drinn D, to which their free ends are secured after being wound thereon. inountcd upon a suitable overhead-track systeni K, disposed above the leach-tanks, one rail of which is shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, further illustration being dceined unnecessary, for the reason that the systein of tracks and switches may be varied to .ineet the requirement of the location of the series of said leach-tanks to which iny device is to be applied.

Mounted in a central bushing L of the sca'il'old is a vertical arbor M, having secured at its upper end a bevel driving-gear N, the lower end of the arbor being provided with a T-hcad, in which are fastened horizontal radial arms O, carrying a series of scraperblades I), which blades are set at an angle to the path of travel of the arins, the end blades I being straight and provided with raketeeth P, as shown. The ends of said. arins are preferably hollow and have telescoped therein plungers Q, having studs d at their cnds,upon which are mounted antifrictionrollers R. The said plungcrs are also provided with scrapers S, inclined at an angle thc reverso of that of the scraper-blades I), as shown. The inner ends of thc plungers are shouldered and reduced to receive coilsprings T, which are interposed between internal collars c of the arins O and the shouldered portions of said plungers. To prevent the aforesaid plungers froin twisting, the ends of said arins O are provided with longitudinal slots f, having right-angle pockets at their inner ends, the slots serving as guides for pins g, projecting from the plungers.

The above described arrangeiiient of scraper-blades is such that when the arins O are revolved (in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 2) the spent bark is scraped from its surface toward the periphery of the tank, where during its travel it is discharged,

The trolley J is IOO IIO

by means of the straight blades P', into the l opening in the mass of bark and out through the orifice in said tank.

The walls of the leach-tank are cleared of bark by the scrapers S, which have their scraping edges upon the saine vertical plane as the periphery of the rollers R, and by reason of the yielding connection between said roller and the arms O the said scrapers are held constant with relation to the tank-walls regardless of variation in the circumference thereof, while at the same time the rollers serve to prevent the Scrapers from catching in any irregularities. The shoe extensions F, which travel downward with the scaffold as the leach-tank is cleared, while serving as guides for said scaffold also scrape the channel E clear of spent bark, which would otherwise adhere therein, and in order to prevent the Scrapers S from dropping into said chan nel in their rotation the said shoes are provided with bridges 7L in the same horizontal plane as the antifriction-roller R, so that when the latter travel up the inclined surfaces of the cleats D under spring tension they will pass over said bridge and down the opposite inclined cleats to the tank-wall.

ln order to provide adjustment of the length of the scaffold for slight variations in tanks, the shoes F are secured to said scaffold by bolts i, fitted into slots j of flanges projecting inward from said shoes. A back-geared f motor U is bolted to the face of the scaffold in link-belt connection with a drive-shaft V, which shaft is provided with a loose bevelpinion W, meshing with the bevel-gear N of the arbor M. The shaft V has its bearings in brackets lc 7c', bolted to the said scaffold, and said shaft also carries a loose sprocket X adjacent to the bracket 7c', and this sprocket, together with the pinion W, are formed with oppositely-disposed clutch-faces 'n m, respectively, for engagement with a lever-controlled double-face clutch-collar Y, which is splined upon the said drive-shaft V and arranged to transmit motion therefrom to either the bevel-pinion or sprocket. The lower face of bevel-gear N is formed with one or more bevel-teeth Z for intermittent engagement with a bevel-pinion A",fast on. a shaft B', the latter having its bearings in bracket 7c' and a bracket o adjacent to one end of the scaffold. The said shaft B' carries a sprocket C' in link-belt connection with theloose sprocket X of drive-shaft V, and valso secured to the aforesaid shaft B is a worm E', which meshes with a worm-wheel j F' located between the drum members p p'.

Said members, together with .the wormwheel, constitute the drum D', they being fast on a shaft G', having its bearings in brackets 1, that are bolted to the scaffozld.

' As shown in Figs. l and 2 of the drawings,

L the clutch is thrown to transmit power from the motor to the scraper-arms, which are slowly revolved to clear the leach-tank of the spent bark therein, and with each revolution of said scrapers the teeth upon the lower face of the bevel-gear N strike the pinion A", which, through the worm E', imparts a slight rotation to the drum to unwind the cables thereon, thus causing the entire device to feed down as the spent bark is scraped off and until the tank has been cleared. To'reniove the leach-clearing apparatus from the tank, the clutch is reversed and coupled with the sprocket X. This action stops the motion of the Scrapers and imparts a continuous drive to the shaft B' in a reverse direction from that transmitted to said shaft by the intermitted drive, thereby causing the drum to wind up the cables and raise the leach-clearing apparatus out of the tank. The power may then be disconnected from the driving mechanism by placing the clutch-collar in -a central position between the clutch-face of the gear and sprocket. When the apparatus is in the above-described suspended position, the trolleys may be moved on their track to the tank A' of the series andlowered by means of gears H" H', the gear H" being splined upon the shaft V and arranged to be slid into mesh with the gear H'" for the purpose of transmitting reverse motion to the shaft B', to which 1t is secured.

In raising and lowering the apparatus in the tank the plungers Q are pushed back so as to clear the walls of the tank and locked in this position by twisting the pin g into the right-angle pockets of slots By the above description it will be seen that my device is so constructed as to make it possible to dispense with all obstruction in the body of the leach-tanks, the only addition to said tanks being the cleats upon the side, walls which in no Way interfere.

I claiml. A leachclearing apparatus comprising a scaffold, suspension-cables secured to the ends thereof and adapted to be carried by overhead pulleys, a drum mounted on the scaffold to which drum the ends of the cables are secured, a central arbor having its bearing in said scaffold, a drive-gear secured to the upper end of the arbor, a scraper-arm secured to the lower end of said arbor, a counter-shaft mounted upon the aforesaid scaffold and in gear connection with the arbor drive-gear, a niotor for the counter-shaft, and driving means in connection with the IOO IIO

IIS

drum and drive-gear ofthe arbor, whereby scaffold and in gear connection with the scraper-driving gear, and cables connected to eacli enel of the aforesaid scatl'old andV arrangeLl to travel over tlie suspension-pullcys, enc-s of said cables being connected to tlie drum.

3. A leach-clearing apparatus comprising suspension-jpulleys over the leach-tank, a scall'olrl vertically adjustable in the tank,

'channel-guides for the ends of the scal'l'olu securezl to the tank, the said guides lraxnng tapered edges, a rotary scraper and drivinggear therefor carried by the scal'olal, yleluling telescopic scraper-sections carriezl by the rotary scra'jier, a drum mounted on sain scatfoltl and in gear connection with the scraperdriving gear, and cables connectc1l to each end of the aforesaid scafl'olrl and arranged to travel over the suspension-pulleys, ends of said cables being connectezl to the crum.

4. A leach-clearing` apparatus connxrisjing l a Verticallyadjustable scalfolrlya rotary scraper carried by the scallolrl, channelguides in the leach-tank, adjustable slice extensions carried by tlic scallold and ilaptcal to be 'lit-ted into the channel-guides, bringes on tbe shoes in tlae Path ol the rotary scraper, yielding telescopic serazer-sectons carriel by said rotary scra'1,er, and antllrlction-rollers mounten on the ends oli tlie telescopic sections.

5. A leach-clearing artaratus con'nrfsing a vertically-anjustable seafl'olrl liavnig mounterl thereon a rotary sera-ter, (irivrn'g means for the scraper mountefv uiron the seall'olrl, a drum in gear connection with said nriv'ing means, in combination wftli cables secured to each em olt the seallolrl ann a: a'jptez to 'pass over pulleys above ille leach-tank, ends of the cables being connecten to the orum.

ln testimony that 1 claim the foregoing I have hereunto set mylians, at Milwaulec, in l' tlie county ol Mrlwaukee and State ol W'isl cousin, in the Ypresence olt two witnesses.

OTT() SEIDEL, JR.

Vitnesses:

Gino. W. loUNo, l FRED PALM. 

